China exotica: Of Spartan moves and drone pilots

Beijing, July 23 (IANS) The movie “300” has apparently made quite an impact in China, wherein 300 Spartans overcame an army a thousand times larger led by Persian “God-King” Xerxes.

In Beijing, dozens of muscular male foreigners dressed as Spartans apparently tried to invoke the resemblance in a promotional event on Wednesday.

But their effort was soon nixed as Beijing police arrested them accusing the lot of “disturbing public order” in Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s hot hubs of entertainment.

Chinese news portal China.org.cn said the foreigners were promoting an event of a salad restaurant in the capital.

Photos posted online showed a group wearing Spartan-like jock straps and capes marching through the streets while holding small boxes of food in their hands.

In China, those who want to parade for any purposes must obtain a permit from the authorities beforehand.

Net Beauty: A thing of beauty is a joy forever. At least the netizens in China believe that as photos of a police woman from Tumxuk police station in Xinjiang has gone viral. According to People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, the policewoman looks “bright and brave in uniform, attracting extensive attention from netizens.”

Being American: Not everything from the US is looked down upon in China. Apart from the onslaught of American brands in most major cities, the practice of cheerleading is making its mark in several places. A national cheerleaders competition was held this week in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu province. College students from over all the country competed for the title of best cheerleaders in China.

Drone control: Shanghai is planning to crackdown on drone users, requiring them to obtain pilot licences to fly the machines. According to Shanghai Morning Post, by the end of the year anyone planning to fly remote-controlled model planes, or mini-drones in public areas in the city will have to apply for a licence.

Remote-controlled model planes or mini-drones are operated by wireless control manually within a visual range. They usually fly at less than 1,000 meters height. In recent years, they have been widely used in wedding celebrations, advertising, news gathering, aerial photography and in the TV and film industry in China.

The paper quoted Gu Chen, president of the Aeroplane and Vehicle Modeling Association of Shanghai as saying that hundreds of such mini-drones are sold in Shanghai every month.

According to China Daily, draft regulations say that flying a mini-drone in any public airspace will require a pilot license. If flying above a highly populated area, the pilot should hold an above-midlevel license and get approval from the police, military and urban management officers.

Left-behind: More than 58 million children in China are being called “left-behind” as they cope with life with grandparents or single parent in rural areas.

One of their parent or parents leave for cities seeking employment, according to China.org.cn.

According to a survey of the National Women’s Federation, the number of such children account for 28.29 percent of all children in rural areas. Among these children, 57.2 percent are looked after by a single parent, whereas 42.8 percent have no parents with them. Almost 80 percent are cared for by their grandparents.

The left-behind children are going through a critical period of growth and development, according to experts quoted by the federation.